Think Your Sales Are the Problem? Think Again

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Free Sales Leads

Let’s be honest, if you had the ability to provide a sales person with true sales-leads, would you do that for free…?

….No, neither would I.

On a fly-fishing trip, a number of years ago, I was told that “most flies are tied to catch fishermen, not fish”. This idiom may have more truth in sales than any other profession, because we are often the easiest people to sell to.

That is the part of the problem with “free sales leads” they are designed to catch us, not for us to catch customers.

Even if the quality of the “leads” looks good, even if the companies are in industries relevant to your products and services, do you really think that you are the only sales person receiving this gift?

When you call on the “leads” and the person answering the phone gives you the impression he/she has been getting calls from sales people all day, that is probably because they have – and guess who gave their contact details to your sales brethren….?

Because, like you, I am a sales person I define the word “lead” in two very specific ways:

1. A lead is when a customer, or potential customer, contacts a vendor for a quote/bid, or to gain information that could be used in a quote/bid.

2. A lead is a qualified opportunity with a potential, or current, customer.

Anything else is simply a phone number and a contact name, and we can get those from the phone book.

So, be careful when signing up for something that sounds too good to be true – it probably is.

At http://integrity-sales-leadership.com we try to provide you with real advice for filling your funnel.

Sales Report

Prophet provides a complete sales report You can get a daily sales report from the Prophet system with just a click. This sales report generating software is designed to be used with Outlook and is therefore easy to set up. Since it is basically an extension of the Outlook system no special training is required and the system can start providing a daily sales report immediately. This sales report will contain the information every member of the sales team needs to track each opportunity. The sales report can be sorted according to product, sales representative, or customer. The sales report will also make an assessment of where every opportunity stands in the pipeline and can even project likely closing dates.

Of course the sales report should be immediately available to everyone who needs it and Prophet makes sure that happens. A top notch sales report should also be focused so that everyone gets the exact information they need, and again the Prophet system fills this need. This top rated Avidian software provides will give you a sales report that is complete and helps you build the best relationship with your customers. Tasking is easy with this sales report because it provides information about every step in the sales process. With this outstanding sales report there are never any tasks left undone.

Types of sales reports The daily sales report is not the only one that a company needs however. Any type of sales report is available with the Prophet system and there are over 30 reports built into the system that are automatically generated. Any sales report can be easily customized to fit the company reporting requirements. Then a sales report can be used to forecast future sales trends and revenues since each sales report will contain the information needed by company executives to make such predictions. No factor is overlooked in a sales report that is made using this software.

If you want to take a look at the Avidian line of products, including the sales report features, go to the website at Avidian.com. There you will see how this software can be tailored to fit the needs of your company when it comes to a sales report and many other helpful sales force needs. You’ll find that the production of an excellent sales report is only one of the programs that can help your company. That’s why Avidian has received numerous awards for its software and its sales report features. Being able to produce a quality sales report has helped get Prophet named the Best Outlook-Based CRM solution. The sales report features have also been a factor in getting the software the prestigious four star rating from the highly regarded PC World magazine.

Get everything you want from a Prophet sales report A sales report produced by the Prophet software gives you everything you need in a sales report. No stone is left unturned with a Prophet sales report and you’ll see your closings increase due to having the right sales report. A Prophet sales report uses all of the tools a sales manager needs to keep the opportunities up to date and the sales representatives or account reps functioning at peak efficiency. A top sales report keeps everyone on a sales team moving in the right direction. Do you want to know about the revenues produced by your sales, and then check a Prophet sales report? How about the source of sales leads, you’ll find it in a Prophet sales report. In other words, everything is covered by a Prophet software generated sales report.

Avidian offers the best business software No other software on the market will give you a better sales report than that produced by Prophet Software. Every sales report is designed and produced to help you close sales and increase the bottom line for your company. Every sales report is complete and focused and every sales report is easily accessible. You can get a sales report using another system, but no other sales report system gives you more flexibility or will better meet your company’s needs. A Prophet sales report can give you the edge you need in today’s highly competitive market place. While other businesses are still manually preparing a sales report and wasting time and money you can get an automatically prepared sales report with the click of a mouse.

With the Prophet software you’ll find more that just the excellent sales report system. In addition to getting an excellent sales report you’ll also find the best contact management system on the market. Getting the best sales report available will be enhanced by all of the other features of the Prophet software. In addition to the sales report you’ll get other helpful aids to sales force automation. A good daily sales report along with the other features of the Prophet software keeps your sales representatives in the field following up leads instead of sitting at a desk trying to get a sales report done. You can take you company to a higher level with Prophet Software.

Sales Report

Contact:
Warren Strokes
peterson2020@gmail.com

Looking For Mr/ms Right

Here’s how to find the ‘sales natural’.

“It’s like getting elephants to climb trees,” the Vice President of sales said. “Maybe we should have hired squirrels instead.”

The company had just gone through another round of “sales force re-engineering”, moving sales reps to home offices and stripping away account maintenance tasks, giving them to customer service. The only problem was they didn’t anticipate how the sales force would respond. Some resigned, while others had to be let go. When the Vice President ran an ad to look for replacements, everybody looked so good. Professionally prepared resumes boasted “results-oriented, aggressive self-starters”. In interview situations, all candidates seemed to have the same canned responses to his questions. Sales candidates often perform well in job interviews but then fail to deliver once on the job. It is difficult to ascertain in a short period of time whether people have the right natural behavior patterns for selling. As a result, many companies are becoming increasingly reliant on behavioral assessments to assess sales candidates. A behavioral assessment is a web or computer based self-assessment that may take any where from a few minutes to several hours. It measures how someone reacts to pressure, handles rejection, builds relationships, or persists despite obstacles.

These assessments have become prevalent in the last few years for a number of reasons. Two of these are:

- Continual waves of downsizing have spawned a whole industry focused on teaching people how to prepare resumes and answer interview questions. The proliferation of the web has made this information available to all candidates, free of charge. No wonder hiring managers sometimes feel that they have been out maneuvered in an interview. - With the advent of ISO 9000, companies have developed processes that give them detailed information on the cost of hiring. Prudential Securities estimates that the first-year cost of a commissioned sales rep, after training and hiring costs are factored in, is $100.000. With that type of investment involved, sales managers want to ensure that the enthusiastic self-starters who show up to the interview will remain that way once they are settled into their daily prospecting routine.

Of the companies who use behavioral assessments, many espouse the belief that success in selling has more to do with “personality” than, say, success in software engineering. There seems to be no shortage of stories of “born” salespeople with any prior selling experience that outperforms their veteran co-workers within months on the job. Companies that use behavioural assessments are trying to find that elusive sales “natural” – or at least define what factors are essential to becoming number one in their company.

So, what is it that differentiates the top performers from the rest of the pack? Answers vary. Sales managers talk about the desire to succeed. Jack H. McQuaig, a pioneering Psychologist who spent four decades delivering seminars on how to hire salespeople, claims that one defining factor is persistence - the determination to achieve something. Researchers have posed the same question to customers. Their responses have to do with empathy – the ability to develop a solution verses present a product. What about the top guns? They couldn’t be bothered with such questions; they just want to sell.

Over the years, a number of clients have asked my employer, The McQuaig Institute, to help them establish what it is that makes their top performers different. We found that the answer was a person’s natural temperament. Qualities like competitiveness, sense of urgency and independence have the greatest impact on success.

Companies often misunderstand the factors that lead to success in selling. In one case, an insurance company that believed previous sales experience was the key to success in their business found that this had no impact whatsoever. In another case, a company that sought the “gift of gab” when hiring inbound telemarketers, found that their telemarketers who were naturally talkative were the least likely to be successful.

Other organizations turn to behavioral assessments to curb turnover. Some companies seem resigned to the fact that they will have high turnover in telesales or straight commission sales. However, the effective use of behavioral assessments can help predict the likelihood that a candidate will be able to cope or even thrive in the difficult environments that often accompany these positions. One client in the mailing systems industry more than doubled the average tenure of their sales reps by measuring qualities like independence and determination.

So how will current business trends impact the use of assessment tools in hiring sales people? As companies move toward more elaborate contact management and customer tracking systems (46% of all companies use some form of Sales Force Automation), sales managers can differentiate between “farmers” and “hunters”. It is difficult to measure this difference in a 45-minute interview but behavioral assessments can usually pin-point the difference straight away.

Author Tom Peters, says that companies will not only have to think “outside of the box”, but hire outside of the box if they are to survive. Hiring based on prior industry experience, limits the company’s ability to operate outside the box, especially in industries where products, services and distribution channels change at break-neck speed. As Shari Caudron stated in a recent issue of Workforce Magazine, “Hiring people based only on skill sets is engaging in planned obsolescence. Companies that understand and embrace the importance of behavioral competencies in making hiring decisions are eating the lunch of their competitors who don’t.”

As the War for Talent continues, the impact of good hiring decision becomes more critical than ever before. Managers will continue to look for added insight that can help them tell the difference between an elephant and a squirrel.

Complete McQuaig’s Sales Assessment The McQuaig Word Survey assessment is used by over 1200 companies globally when hiring for key roles, including sales, leadership and administration. If you would like to complete a complimentary assessment, visit www.mcquaig.com & click on COMPLETE AN ASSESSMENT. Please let us know in your query that you read this ar

IT Sales: It''s about Relationships and Benefits

What Benefit Can You Give Them?

If your prospect has an IT problem you can't solve, then to get IT sales you need to focus more on the problems that you know you can solve and the things that you can do that are really going to cause them to say, "Wow, that sounds really good!" Know Your Pitch for IT Sales

If you can talk about things that you’ve done in the past with other customers, and the benefits that your clients have achieved from the type of solutions that you’ve recommended, designed, set up, supported and serviced for them, the more your pitch will resonate with them.

Let the Relationship Evolve

Sometimes it takes a couple weeks or months to be able to get a commitment from your prospect. Be patient and persistent. Send email, faxes, postcards, and make phone calls.

Don’t be obnoxious. You don’t want to get to the point that you’re calling them every day, but if they told you it’s something they want to do over the next couple of months, it’s perfectly appropriate for you to call them once or twice a month just to see where they are.

Answer Any Additional Questions

See if they had any other questions or issues that have come up. Ask if they need anything revised in the initial quote or bid that you sent them. The key thing to remember is, if they’re saying great idea, I’ll get back to you, that’s not the end of this discussion. The only way it’s the end of the discussion is if you let it be.

You haven’t given them a good enough reason that they need to do it today, or no matter what you say to them, they’re not going to agree to IT sales today. You need to be able to get to the bottom of that by asking the basic questions like:

o How important is this? o When do you want to get started? o Is there a sense of urgency to this? o Where are you in the decision process? o Where are you in the research process? o Is this a good time of year for this kind of project? o Have you budgeted for it yet? There’s a lot of different ways that you can ask those questions. For IT sales, don’t let “later” turn into “no” by inaction on your part!

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About the Author

Joshua Feinberg can help you get more steady, high-paying computer consulting clients. Sign-up now for Joshua's free audio training on proven computer consulting secrets from the Computer Consulting Blog now at http://www.ComputerConsultingBlog.com

Sales Success or Failure - Whose Fault Is It?

This scenario, however, is not rare. And it makes no difference whether the organization is large (this client sells $2.6 billion in the U.S. alone) or small, a "ma-pop," small business or entrepreneurial environment. These situations exist in all organizations. No matter the size. What is believed to be the problem is merely a symptom of a series of deeper, more endemic challenges.

In this case there were a whole series of problems. Fortunately, the leaders of this organization have now seen them, accepted their existence and now, together, we are addressing them. In this particular case here they are:

Lack of consistent, on-time product delivery

Incomplete order fulfillment

Shortage of qualified applicants for support positions

Improperly designed pay plan for salespeople

Lack of sales management personnel and a system to train them

No performance appraisal system or performance management system

Poorly designed structure for field offices in terms of reporting functions and responsibilities. You see, the problems weren't whether salespeople knew how to ask for the order, sell value or organize accounts. Those areas, of course, can always be improved. The real issues were deeper, more organizational issues related directly to fundamental circumstances like structure, delivery, customer service, personnel and accountability.

Here is the real point. Quite often there are simple, fundamental reasons behind the most obvious things you see. Things like disappearing customers, cancelled orders, customer complaints, a lack of increased sales volume and stagnant salespeople are not always the fault of a salesperson or even an entire sales organization.

Whenever I encounter this type of situation I am often reminded of the human body. It is not unusual for an ache or pain somewhere to be caused by a problem that is far removed from the actual location of the pain. A headache can be caused by a bad back…a problem in your leg can be traced to your shoulder - you get the picture.

So, what would I urge you to do? Take a look at a few areas where you have difficulties and then try to determine what is really causing them. My suggestion is to look in the following categories of business first:

Structure and Organization

Compensation Design

Performance Appraisal and Performance Management Systems

Facilities, Equipment and Supplies

Operations and Quality

Customer Service

Delivery

Credit Issues

Product Support and Training

Reporting Function

Recruitment and Retention Policy

Product Management Then - and only then - should you start to take steps to work a direct sales challenge. If any of these 12 areas are incompatible with your overall business strategy, any or all of them can be the real culprit behind poor sales. It doesn't have to be the sales team that is faltering.

Interestingly, I have encountered a great deal of this where salespeople are physically or geographically removed from a central location. Often they (and their customers) are directly affected by the actions of other departments, philosophies and decisions within the organization. The problem? Salespeople are, far too often, the ones who hear the brunt of the direct customer aggression because they see customers daily. They hear about poor delivery, inferior quality or a lack of customer support. They then have to deal with it directly in spite of their distraction from the seat of the problem.

No one operates in a void within any organization. An organization is just that - a group of people aligned for a specific set of purposes. How well that organization functions is a not one person's or even the organization's responsibility. Instead, it is the collective responsibility of all people, all departments, all functions and facilities. They all come together to define success or failure. It never is one department's responsibility for success or failure. It is a collective effort. That includes sales.

Bill Brooks is the founder and CEO of The Brooks Group, an internationally known sales and business development research, training and consulting firm. He is the author of 14 books including How To Sell At Margins Higher Than Your Competitors, a 2005 best-seller published by John Wiley & Sons. Click here for more sales management articles and resources.

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